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Science and Engineering Fair Volunteer Opportunities

We are getting geared up for the SCIENCE & ENGINEERING FAIR season!!!!

We are excited to host over 750 K-12th grade students to compete in the Region I Fair this year. Additionally, this year Southern Miss will host the Mississippi State Science and Engineering Fair, that's over 500 7th-12th grade students from across the state competing to see who has the best science or engineering project! This is a big undertaking this year and we need your help. Helping out is easy as 1 2 3!!! We need 1. Judges, 2. Help Setting Up/Cleaning Up, 3. Help corralling people during the fair.

We need judges on Thursday, February 12th; Tuesday, March 24th, and Wednesday, April 8th to help these great students learn to be great scientists, and that starts with YOU! These students see the judges as role models and helping them meet real scientists will encourage them to continue studying science by choice.

Qualifications Required:

February 12th - To judge 7th-8th grade, received a B in at least 2 collegeScience/Math/Engineering courses; 9th-12th grade, Graduate Student or has a Graduate Degree in Science/Math/Engineering Field

March 24th – To judge 7th-8th grade, received a B in at least 2 collegeScience/Math/Engineering courses; 9th-12th grade, Graduate Student or has a Graduate Degree in Science/Math/Engineering Field

April 8th – To judge K-6th grade, received a B in at least 2 upper level HS Science/Math/Engineering course

There will be approximately 1300 students coming to campus across three different events. We will need help preparing before each fair to get our competition space ready for the students. This includes setting up tables for their posters to be displayed on, laying out t-shirts, and setting up the judging area.

Fair Set-up Dates:

February 11th – Help setting up the judges’ area and competition area in the Thad Cochran Center. We will meet in the third floor ballroom at 3p.

March 23rd – Help setting up the registration area, judges area, teacher hospitality suite/exhibit hall, teacher workshop space, and competition area (setting up ~100 8ft tables in three different spaces, we will need a lot of help with this).

April 7th – Help setting up the registration area, judges area, and competition area (setting up ~60 8ft tables, we will need a lot of help with this).

There is no set time commitment, you can come and go as your schedule permits. Any help we get would be great!!!!

7a~9:30a: Project Location: Help students find their projects. There will be maps and signs, but it is nice to have someone lead students to their projects. Students doing this will also help complete project violations checks for every student they guide to their project space.

~8:30a-11a: Project Violations Check: Students are really excited and proud about their projects and they want to bring EVERYTHING to show off. However, some things aren't safe to have with lots of students and judges walking around. We need your help to check all the projects and make sure they are safe for everyone. We will take this time to check of projects that did not get checked previously

Afternoon Jobs (11a-330p):

11a-2p:

Competition Monitoring: Parents are excited for their students and want to stay with them but that isn't allowed, so we need to help keep parents (and some teachers) out of the competition area unless Science Fair staff have previously approved exceptions. Also, younger students may want to let loose some of their energy and play, but that makes judging hard. Monitors will try to keep the peace and keep students near their projects.

Runners: There are a lot of moving parts and people at Science and Engineering Fairs. We will need a few people to play runners between the judges room, scoring room, and registration/t-shirt sales to help keep information flowing. NOTE you do not actually need to run anywhere.

Score Sheet Checker: There are a large number of score sheets that will be coming in. We need help keeping track of which score sheets have been signed out, which ones have been returned, and double checking the score totals.

2p-3:30p: Project Removal: Help student take their projects down and out to their cars while they wait for the awards ceremony to start.

Evening Jobs (330p-6p):

3:30p-6p: Clean-up. There are a lot of tables that will need to be folded and stacked, shirts to be put away, and the judging area to cleanup.